SVOBODA. Svoboda, a weekly Czech-language newspaper, was established at La Grange, Fayette County, in 1885, by friends of Judge Augustin Haidušek. The purpose of the paper, the name of which means "liberty," was to give Haidušek a Czech-language journal friendly to his policy of supporting English-language instruction in public schools. Svoboda, edited by Haidušek until Jaroslav Chudoba of New York arrived to take over, had only 400 subscribers and was more than $2,000 in debt in 1887, when Haidušek took charge again. In three years the debt had been paid off and the paper had more than 2,000 subscribers. Haidušek became sole owner in 1890 and continued to manage the paper in the interests of the Democratic party until 1927, when publication ceased.
In 1941 a paper called Svoboda began publication at El Campo. It was a continuation of the La Grange paper and was published into the 1960s, when it was a supplement to the El Campo News.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Estelle Hudson and Henry R. Maresh, Czech Pioneers of the Southwest (Dallas: South-West, 1934 Jesse Jochec, The Life and Career of Augustin Haidušek (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1940 La Grange High School, Fayette County: Past and Present (La Grange, Texas, 1976 Clinton Machann and James W. Mendl, Krásná Amerika: A Study of the Texas Czechs, 1851-1939 (Austin: Eakin Press, 1983).
